Defence 3 – the coverage generated would be worth millions if we had to pay for it. The “PR is free advertising” defence.

Defence 4 – you couldn’t buy decent advertising for the £400,000 fee paid to the brand consultants. The “slight of hand budgeting” defence.

Defence 5 – it’s great that everyone has an opinion on the logo. The “they’ve engaged with it” defence.

Each defence is important – because the real aim here is to sucker in sponsors to cough up nearly £1 billion.

Marketer to marketer, the brand twaddle will be transmitted – sponsors are assured their brand too will be seen as edgy, reaching the youff demographic, gaining buzz and media coverage worth far more than the cost of sponsorship, currying favour with the government (although, of course, that won’t be overtly said), etc, etc.

And the added benefit, like the first sucker in town, Lloyds TSB, you can redesign the logo for your reported £80 million. (Strangely, I couldn’t find the recent “blue fading to green” version of the logo on the bank’s website only news of the sponsorship and the original London 2012 winning bid logo).

There is a skill in never being wrong – one which the creative minds of marketers are quite adept at mastering.

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Heather Yaxley PhD

Dr. Heather Yaxley is passionate about sustainable careers, reflective practice and professional development. I am a rhizomatic educator, practitioner, consultant, academic and scholar. As a qualified academic, I teach the CIPR professional qualifications with PR Academy and have experience teaching at various Universities. I run the Motor Industry Public Affairs Association (MIPAA) and my own strategic consultancy. I was awarded by PhD researching Career Strategies in Public Relations by Bournemouth University in 2017. I'm a published author, with books, chapters and academic papers to my name.
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2 thoughts on “Marketing is never wrong”

The design of the City of Edinburgh Council’s Inspiring Capital logo was, I believe, carried out by people in london. Did they outbid us Scots at tender time I wonder?

Completley unrelated but how on earth did the only sporran maker locally not get the chance to tender for the recent MOD contract? The sporrans are now made in two stages by two different maufacturers as a result.That is crazy!

It is an interesting idea about whether local companies should be used for such design/marketing work. I tend to think that where there could be a benefit in terms of the values of the organisation, then they should do so unless there is no suitable candidate.

I am not an expert on sporran’s but it does question their strategy, contacts and reputation – sounds like they lack good public relations?